State TV switches to non-stop footage of Chinese under attack

China has begun to fight back against criticism of its handling of the Tibetan protests, launching a sustained publicity offensive as well as blocking foreign broadcasters and websites and denying journalists access to areas of unrest.

After days of ignoring and then playing down protests, the media suddenly switched course yesterday. TV channels aired hours of Friday's anti-Chinese riots in Lhasa and the aftermath.

Employees at the state television service CCTV's English service were instructed to keep broadcasting footage of burned-out shops and Chinese wounded in attacks. No peaceful demonstrators were shown.

Qiangba Puncog, the region's governor, gave a lengthy press conference attacking some Western coverage as "ridiculous" and offering graphic details of attacks on Han Chinese and Hui Muslims.

"I think their first gut reaction with any unrest is to close down the hatches and try and contain information," said Chris O'Brien, a former Xinhua employee and author of the Beijing Newspeak blog. "Maybe [this time] there's been a feeling that they can be a bit cleverer with this.

"You can pretty much count [the footage] as genuine stuff; it's just that it's not put in context. The powerful images of injured Han Chinese speak for themselves. Obviously, the historical discussions and reasons why this happened are not covered."

He added: "It's not a well-oiled machine at all ... [But] Tibet is fairly ridiculous in how tightly they monitor it - one colleague at the Tibetan bureau told me 80% of his ideas were rejected."

The media are overseen by the Ministry of Information and the State Council Information Office, which issue edicts telling them what subjects to cover, and how, and which to avoid. Since foreign media cannot be controlled, the government relies on blocking access.

The so-called Great Firewall of China ensures that access to stories on Tibet and other sensitive subjects is strictly limited - though they are most concerned about Chinese language sites and also video, where images transcend language. Yesterday YouTube and other media websites, including the Guardian, were blocked, though some access later returned.

Attempts to block TV coverage seem rather less sophisticated. While they have repeatedly cut the signal for CNN and the BBC, resulting in unexplained blank screens and silence, they do not always get the timing right.

Nor is the blocking consistent: while prevalent in diplomatic compounds, where many journalists also live and work, foreigners in five star hotels can watch unhindered.

In truth, the government is most concerned about controlling access by its citizens, but those with access to the western media are not always convinced by what they see. Many believe it is at least as biased as official sources and find it hard to reconcile such conflicting accounts.

When the western media reported Tibetan exiles' claims that the protests led monks to attempt suicide, the China Daily website reported police claims that they had cut themselves "in blatant attempts to create sensation ... to blame others for the harm they inflicted upon themselves".

Those Were The Days, a Chinese language blogger, echoed several other bloggers when writing: "I saw the news clip from CCTV and this was obviously a riot ... You will feel that it was a reasonable thing for the Chinese government to send troops in to protect the people."

It added: "Of course, the same thing in the BBC and CNN reports has the emphasis on the Chinese government sending troops in to suppress Tibetan demonstrators, firing, killing and injuring many Tibetans ...

"Unless you were there to see what was happening, the same event may be 'manufactured' into completely different "news" by different 'media'. On the basis of the official Chinese video clips, or the western media reports, one cannot understand the matter better."